What it was like
Most of these vendors do not have a restaurant yet. That is the whole appeal — you are eating the concept a year before it has a lease.
Fifty to eighty independent operations, nearly all of them selling one signature thing and betting everything on it. Japanese milk bread. Birria tacos. Nashville hot chicken. Hawaiian poke. Filipino ube desserts. Korean corn dogs. Birria ramen. Design, vintage and craft sellers fill in around the food, and the seating is spread across an open plaza in the warehouse district rather than crammed into a hall.
It is the West Coast outpost of the Brooklyn original, and it runs rain or shine, year-round, every Sunday.
ROW DTLA, 777 S Alameda St, Los Angeles. 10 AM to 4 PM. Free admission, free parking on the property, and the Metro station at Little Tokyo/Arts District is a 10-minute walk. Budget $20 to $40.
Go with someone who orders differently than you do, and split everything.